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Toronto
Toronto (i/təˈrɒntoʊ, -tə/,1011 local i/təˈrɒnoʊ, ˈtrɒ-/) is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 4 268 173, it is the fourth most populous city proper in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. Toronto is the centre of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the most populous metropolitan area in Canada, and anchors the Golden Horseshoe, a heavily urbanized region that is home to 12.7 million people, or nearly 23% of the population of Canada. A leading global city, Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years. The city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga.Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, when the Mississaugas surrendered the area to the British Crown. The British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York and suffered heavy damage by U.S. troops. York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2 (243.3 sq mi). Located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, Toronto is situated on a broad sloping plateau intersected by an extensive network of rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, with 140 independently unique and clearly defined official neighbourhoods making up the city. The diverse population of Toronto reflects its current and historical role as an important destination for immigrants to Canada, it is one of three cities in the world with no dominant ethnic or cultural group, with nearly 60% of residents belonging to a visible minority population group, and over 250 distinct ethnic origins represented among its inhabitants. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, there are over 200 different languages spoken in the city. Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canada's major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Its varied cultural institutions, which include numerous museums and galleries, festivals and public events, entertainment districts, national historic sites, and sports activities, attract over 8.4 million international tourists each year. Toronto is known for its many skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the CN Tower. As Canada's commercial capital, the city is home to the Toronto Stock Exchange, the headquarters of Canada's five largest banks, and the headquarters of many large Canadian and multinational corporation. Its economy is highly diversified with strengths in automobiles, technology, design, financial services, life sciences, education, arts, fashion, business services, environmental innovation, food services, and tourism. Cityscape Architecture Lawrence Richards, a member of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto, has said: "Toronto is a new, brash, rag-tag place—a big mix of periods and styles." Toronto's buildings vary in design and age with many structures dating back to the mid-19th-century, while other prominent buildings were just newly built in the first decade of the 21st century. Bay-and-gable houses, mainly found in Old Toronto, are a distinct architectural feature of the city. Defining the Toronto skyline is the CN Tower, a telecommunications and tourism hub. Completed in 1976 at a height of 553.33 metres (1,815 ft 5 in), it was the world's tallest freestanding structure until 2007 when it was surpassed by Burj Khalifa. Toronto is a city of high-rises, having 2 800 buildings over 30 metres (98 ft) and 120 skyscrapers, the 12th highest number of skyscrapers in the world. Public Spaces Toronto has a diverse array of public spaces, from city squares to public parks overlooking ravines. Nathan Phillips Square is the city's main square in downtown, and forms the entrance to City Hall. Yonge-Dundas Square, near City Hall, has also gained attention in recent years as one of the busiest gathering spots in the city. Other squares include Harbourfront Square, on the Toronto waterfront, and the civic squares at the former city halls of the defunct Metropolitan Toronto, most notably Mel Lastman Square in North York. The Toronto Public Space Committee is an advocacy group concerned with the city's public spaces. In recent years, Nathan Phillips Square has been refurbished with new facilities, and the central waterfront along Queen's Quay West has been updated recently with a new street architecture and a new square next to Harbourfront Centre. There are many large downtown parks, some of the most notable include the Rail Deck Park, a 14 hectare park built above the Railway Lands, Trinity-Bellwoods Park, the largest downtown park in the city, and The Bentway, a 3 km long public trail underneath the Gardiner Expressway. An almost hidden park is the compact Cloud Gardens, which has both open areas and a glassed-in greenhouse, near Queen and Yonge. South of downtown are two large parks on the waterfront: the Toronto Islands, accessible from downtown by ferry; and Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit, which has a nature preserve. Large parks in the outer areas include High Park, Humber Bay Park, Centennial Park, Downsview Park, Guild Park and Gardens, Morningside Park and Rouge Park. Toronto also operates several public golf courses. Most ravine lands and river bank floodplains in Toronto are public parklands. After Hurricane Hazel in 1954, construction of buildings on floodplains was outlawed, and private lands were bought for conservation. In the winter, Nathan Phillips Square, Harbourfront Centre, and Mel Lastman Square feature popular rinks for public ice-skating. Etobicoke's Colonel Sam Smith Trail opened in 2011 and is Toronto's first skating trail. Centennial Park and Earl Bales Park offer outdoor skiing and snowboarding slopes with a chairlift, rental facilities, and lessons. Several parks have marked cross-country skiing trails. Culture Toronto theatre and performing arts scene has more than seventy-five ballet and dance companies, eight opera companies, three symphony orchestras and a host of theatres. The city is home to the National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian Opera Company, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, and the Canadian Stage Company. Notable performance venues include the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales Theatre, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Massey Hall, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres and the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts (originally the "O'Keefe Centre" and formerly the "Hummingbird Centre"). Each summer, the Canadian Stage Company presents an outdoor Shakespeare production in Toronto's High Park called "Dream in High Park". Canada's Walk of Fame acknowledges the achievements of successful Canadians, with a series of stars on designated blocks of sidewalks along King Street and Simcoe Street. The production of domestic and foreign film and television is a major local industry. Toronto as of 2011 ranks as the third largest production centre for film and television after Los Angeles and New York City, sharing the nickname "Hollywood North" with Vancouver. The Toronto International Film Festival is an annual event celebrating the international film industry. Another prestigious film festival is the Toronto Student Film Festival, that screens the works of students ages 12–18 from many different countries across the globe. Toronto's Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival (also known as Caribana) takes place from mid-July to early August of every summer. Primarily based on the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, the first Caribana took place in 1967 when the city's Caribbean community celebrated Canada's Centennial. More than forty years later, it has grown to attract one and a half million people to Toronto's Lake Shore Boulevard annually. Tourism for the festival is in the hundred thousands, and each year, the event generates over $600 million in revenue into Ontario's economy. One of the largest events in the city, Pride Week takes place in late June, and is one of the largest LGBT festivals in the world. Tourism The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of world culture and natural history. The Toronto Zoo is home to over 8 000 animals representing over 600 distinct species. The Art Gallery of Ontario contains a large collection of Canadian, European, African and contemporary artwork, and also plays host to exhibits from museums and galleries all over the world. The Gardiner Museum of ceramic art is the only museum in Canada entirely devoted to ceramics, and the Museum's collection contains more than 3 900 ceramic works from Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The city also hosts the Ontario Science Centre, the Bata Shoe Museum, and Textile Museum of Canada. Other prominent art galleries and museums include the Design Exchange, the Museum of Inuit Art, the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Institute for Contemporary Culture, the Toronto Sculpture Garden, the CBC Museum, the Redpath Sugar Museum, the University of Toronto Art Centre, Hart House, the TD Gallery of Inuit Art and the Aga Khan Museum. The city also runs its own museums, which include the Spadina House. The Don Valley Brick Works is a former industrial site that opened in 1889, and was partly restored as a park and heritage site in 1996, with further restoration and reuse being completed in stages since then. The Canadian National Exhibition ("The Ex") is held annually at Exhibition Place, and it is the oldest annual fair in the world. The Ex has an average attendance of 2 million. City shopping areas include the Yorkville neighbourhood, Queen West, Harbourfront, the Entertainment District, the Financial District, and the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood. The Eaton Centre is Toronto's most popular tourist attraction with over 70 million visitors annually. Greektown on the Danforth is home to the annual "Taste of the Danforth" festival which attracts over one million people in 2½ days. Toronto is also home to Casa Loma, the former estate of Sir Henry Pellatt, a prominent Toronto financier, industrialist and military man. Other notable neighbourhoods and attractions include The Beaches, the Toronto Islands, Kensington Market, Fort York, and the Hockey Hall of Fame. Sports Toronto is represented in eight major league sports, with teams in the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, Canadian Football League, Major League Soccer, National Drone League and Canadian Women's Hockey League. The city's major sports venues include the Air Canada Centre, Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome), Ricoh Coliseum, Volt Stadium, and BMO Field. Media Toronto is Canada's largest media market, and has four conventional dailies, four alt-weeklies, and three free commuter papers in a greater metropolitan area of about 6 million inhabitants. The Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun are the prominent daily city newspapers, while national dailies, The Globe and Mail and the National Post are also headquartered in the city. The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and National Post are broadsheet newspapers. Metro and 24 Hours are distributed as free commuter newspapers. Several magazines and local newspapers cover Toronto, including Now and Toronto Life, while numerous magazines are produced in Toronto, such as Canadian Business, Chatelaine, Flare and Maclean's. Toronto contains the headquarters of the major English-language Canadian television networks CBC, CTV, City, Global, The Sports Network (TSN) and Sportsnet. Much (formerly MuchMusic), M3 (formerly MuchMore) and MTV Canada are the main music television channels based in the city, though they no longer primarily show music videos as a result of channel drift. Economy Toronto is an international centre for business and finance. Generally considered the financial capital of Canada, Toronto has a high concentration of banks and brokerage firms on Bay Street, in the Financial District. The Toronto Stock Exchange is the world's tenth-largest stock exchange by market capitalization. The five largest financial institutions of Canada, collectively known as the Big Five, have international offices in Toronto. The city is an important centre for the media, automotive, consumer electronics, publishing, telecommunication, information technology and film production industries; it is home to Bell Media, Rogers Communications, Entertainment One, Corus Entertainment, and Torstar (the parent company of the Toronto Star). Other prominent Canadian corporations in the Greater Toronto Area include Tempest-Flash Enterprises, Polar Motors, the Gray-Dort Autmotive Company, Volt Electronics, BlackBerry Electronics, Magna International, Roots Canada, the Hudson's Bay Company, Moores, and major hotel companies and operators, such as Four Seasons Hotels and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Although much of the region's manufacturing activities take place outside the city limits, Toronto continues to be a wholesale and distribution point for the industrial sector. The city's strategic position along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor and its road and rail connections help support the nearby production of motor vehicles, iron, steel, food, machinery, chemicals and paper. The completion of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 gave ships access to the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean. Education Toronto is home to the country's largest concentration of post-secondary institutions, with 7 accredited universities and 7 diploma- and degree-granting colleges. The University of Toronto, established in 1827, is Canada's largest university and is regularly ranked among the top 20 universities in the world. Toronto is also home to York University, Ryerson University, the University of Scarborough, Sewell University, Fitzpatrick University and OCAD University. The Greater Toronto Area plays host to another 4 universities, Watkins University, the University of Brampton, Cousens University and the University of Ontario, Institute of Technology. The Royal Conservatory of Music, which includes the Glenn Gould School, is a school of music located downtown. The Canadian Film Centre is a film, television and new media training institute founded by filmmaker Norman Jewison. Tyndale University College and Seminary is a Christian post-secondary institution and Canada's largest seminary. The Toronto Public Library is the world's busiest public library system, and consists of 120 branches with more than 18 million items in its collection. Infrastructure Health and medicine Toronto is home to 20 public hospitals, including: the Hospital for Sick Children, the world's third-largest pediatric hospital, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, one of the world's five most prestigious cancer research centres, Mount Sinai Hospital, ranked among the top 5 hospitals in the country, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, home to the largest trauma centre in the country, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the country's largest mental health institute, as well as the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. Toronto's Discovery District is a global centre of research in biomedicine. It is located on a 2.5-square-kilometre (620-acre) research park that is integrated into Toronto's downtown core. It is also home to the Medical and Related Sciences Centre (MaRS), which was created in 2000 to capitalize on the research and innovation strength of the Province of Ontario. Another institute is the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine (MCMM). Toronto also has some specialized hospitals located outside of the downtown core. These hospitals include Baycrest for geriatric care and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital for children with disabilities. Transportation Toronto is a central transportation hub for road, rail and air networks in Southern Ontario. There are many forms of transport in the city of Toronto, including highways and public transit. Toronto also has an extensive network of bicycle lanes and multi-use trails and paths. Public transportation Toronto's main public transportation system is operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The backbone of its public transport network is the Toronto subway system, which includes nine heavy-rail rapid transit lines and two intermediate-rail rapid transit lines that extend outwards out of the city into the suburbs, with the two-intermediate-rail rapid transit lines (Line 10 Hurontario-Queen and Line 11 Highway 7) running almost exclusively outside the city limits. The TTC also operates an extensive network of buses and streetcars. As a result, a recent report found that nearly 100% of Torontonians live within a 15 minute walk of public transit. Toronto's public transit network also connects to other municipal networks such as York Region Transit, Viva, Durham Region Transit, and MiWay. The Government of Ontario also operates a commuter rail and bus transit system called GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area. GO Transit carries over 2 million passengers every weekday and 456 million annually, with a large number of them travelling to or from Union Station. Airports Canada's busiest airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport (IATA: YYZ), straddles the city's western boundary with the suburban city of Mississauga. The airport sees over 76 million passengers annually, and is the world's 14th largest airport by aircraft movements. Toronto/Buttonville Municipal Airport (IATA: YKZ) in Markham provides general aviation facilities.